Tag Archives: Richie Sexson

With today being the first day of the new year, and with just about 6 weeks to go before pitchers and catchers report, I thought it would be the perfect time to roll out a new daily column looking at jersey numbers throughout the years. Each day I will tackle a new number and try to share a little bit of information about each player that has worn it throughout the years as either a Seattle Pilot or Milwaukee Brewer.

So, without further ado, lets look at who was/is number 1.

1969 Seattle Pilots:

– Ray Oyler: The Pilots Opening Day shortstop, Oyler was a player whose career existed well below what is now known as the Mendoza Line. In 106 games with the Pilots in 1969, Oyler recorded 255 at-bats resulting in 42 hits, 31 walks and a meager batting average of .165.

1970-71 Milwaukee Brewers:

– Ted Kubiak: The number 1 remained with the shortstop position in 1970 despite a change in venue and a new player at the position. Kubiak played in 158 games (most on team) for Milwaukee in their inaugural season splitting time between shortstop and 2nd base. He finished 2nd in both hits (136) and walks (72).

Kubiak is best known for setting the Brewers record for most RBIs in a single game by a single player which he set with 7 on July 18th, 1970. The record has been tied three times since moving to the NL, once by Jose Hernandez (April 12th, 2001), just over a year to the day later by Richie Sexson (April 18th, 2002), and most recently by the man who currently wears jersey number 1, Corey Hart (May 23rd, 2011).

1971 Milwaukee Brewers:

– Jose Cardenal: Acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals (with Dick Schofield and Bob Reynolds) in a trade for Kubiak, Cardenal recorded the most RBIs of his carrier (80) between both clubs in 1971. Following the ’71 season, Cardenal was traded by Milwaukee to the Chicago Cubs for Brock Davis, Jim Colborn and Earl Stephenson.

1972-1976: Unissued

1977-78 Milwaukee Brewers:

– Tim Johnson: Johnson, who had been with Milwaukee since 1973, had previously worn number 4, but changed to number 1 in 1977 as 4 was passed on to Mike Hegan. Johnson, who had lost his starting shortstop position to Robin Yount, appeared in 33 games as a utility infielder between ’77 and ’78. During this time, Johnson showed batting ineptitude that makes Ray Oyler look like a batting champion (.061 in ’77, .000 in ’78) before being traded to Toronto during the ’78 season for our next entrant.

1978-79 Milwaukee Brewers:

– Tim Nordbrook: Out of all of today’s players, Nordbrook’s contribution to Brewers lore is the least. Nordbrook only appeared in 4 total games as a Brewer (2 per year) recording 1 whopping hit in 7 total at bats.

1980-84: Unissued

1985-1988 Milwaukee Brewers:

– Ernest “Earnie” Riles: Riles debuted mid-season in 1985 and got his career off to a promising start, finishing 3rd in AL Rookie of the Year balloting. Unfortunately, Milwaukee would never see Riles reach his full potential as a series of injuries kept him off the field. He was traded to the San Francisco Giants for Jeffrey Leonard in mid-1988.

1988-1989 Milwaukee Brewers:

– Gary Sheffield: The only man on today’s list who could be considered “locker-room cancer”, Sheffield was brought up from the minors when rosters expanded in 1988. He would go on to famously claim that the Brewers organization was racist for moving him from short to third and filling the vacancy with the white Billy Spiers instead of owning up to his own drop in production coupled with injury concerns possibly being responsible for the move.

1990-92: Unissued

Side-note: While no one was assigned the number 1 in 1992, Franklin Stubbs was assigned the number “0”. He would wear the “goose egg” on his back for only 1 season.

1993-94 Milwaukee Brewers:

Alex Dias: In three seasons with Milwaukee, Dias was a solid, yet unremarkable, outfielder. He batted .264 in 133 games and 256 plate appearances as a Brewer, and recorded only 1 home run during this time. Dias wore the number 18 in 1992 before changing to 1 in 1993.

1995-99 Milwaukee Brewers:

– Fernando Vina: The good: As a Brewer, Vina was a National League All-Star in 1998. The bad: Vina was mentioned in The Mitchell Report for having purchased HGH from Derek Sprang several times between 2000 and 2005. He would eventually come clean about his steroid use on an episode of Sports Center.

2000-02 Milwaukee Brewers:

– Luis Lopez: Acquired in a trade with the Mets for Bill Pulsipher prior to the 2000 season, Lopez batted .262 in 176 games for Milwaukee before being released on June 7th, 2002. After his release, the number was re-assigned to Keith Ginter who would switch to number 6 for the 2003 campaign.

2003-04: Unissued

2005-Present Milwaukee Brewers:

– Corey Hart: The final owner of jersey number 1 is none other than current Brewers 1st baseman Corey Hart. Hart, who moved to 1st in 2012 after injuries to Mat Gamel and Travis Ishikawa ended each of their respective seasons.

Hart is a two time NL All-Star, and as mentioned earlier is one of four players who are all tied for the single game team RBI mark.

Check back tomorrow for a look at the men who’ve worn number 2 over the years.

Kevin Kimmes is a regular contributor to creamcitycables.com and an applicant for the 2013 MLB Fan Cave. You can follow him on Twitter at @kevinkimmes.

For those of you who didn’t stay up to catch last night’s game against the San Diego Padres, prepare to start kicking yourselves, as what you are about to read is the kind of thing no self respecting Brewers fan should have missed:

Additionally, the performance carried some additional records with it:

– Braun is the first player, home or visitor, to have a 3 homerun game at Petco Park.

– This was Braun’s first 3 homerun game of his career.

– Braun is the firstplayer with 3 homeruns and a triple since Boston Red Sox outfielder Fred Lynn accomplished the feat on June 18, 1975.

– The last major leaguer to have 15 total bases in a game was Dustin Pedroia on June 24, 2010.

– Braun has set anew Brewers franchise record with 15 total bases in a single game. The previous high was 14 by Richie Sexson in 2003.

We at Cream City Cables would like to extend our congratulations to Ryan on this monumental performance, and a great end to the 1st month of the season. And don’t forget you can follow Cream City Cables on Facebook as well as on Twitter (@kevinkimmes, @NPetrashek, and@ryanhenrysmith2) for all the latest Brewers (and Timber Rattler) news and opinions.